Tarek Iskander announced as artistic director of Battersea Arts Centre

Tarek Iskander is to be the new artistic director of Battersea Arts Centre, it has been announced.

Iskander will take over from David Jubb, who announced in late 2018 he would be leaving in April 2019.

Iskander is currently interim director for Theatre at Arts Council England and was an artistic director as part of Up Next – a takeover initiative by Artistic Directors of the Future. He was one of the founders and associate artistic director of the Yard Theatre in Hackney and also resident director at the National Theatre Studio.

Iskander said: "I'm absolutely thrilled to be joining Battersea Arts Centre's fantastic team. David Jubb's legacy is immense, and we want to use that springboard to continuously reinvent how we embolden our communities and our artists.

"Battersea Arts Centre will always be a home for the pioneering and the under-represented, the visionary and the mischievous. It's that uncompromising, radical and rebellious spirit… That's what has always made Battersea Arts Centre precious to me and to others. I'm so excited to work with everyone to devise what remarkable things Battersea Arts Centre does next."

The theatre re-opened in 2018 following a fire in 2015 which burnt the Grand Hall and a subsequent regeneration project.